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Reproductive aging

Follicular communication breakdown in aging ovaries

Nature Aging volume 3, pages 636–637 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Liu and colleagues investigate the effects that ovarian aging may have in granulosa cell-to-oocyte communication and demonstrate that oocyte rejuvenation and the extension of reproductive lifespan is possible by increasing lipid metabolism in granulosa cells in mouse.

The authors used HiC technology to identify changes in chromatin structure by comparing growing, full-grown, meiosis I and meiosis II oocytes. When they compared the pattern of chromatin structure in oocytes from young (6 weeks old) to old (10 months old) mice, they found that meiosis I oocytes from old mice had reduced chromatin condensation. The authors hypothesized that changes in chromatin structure could reflect changes in gene expression during meiotic maturation. To test this hypothesis, they conducted RNA sequencing for low-abundance samples (SMART-seq) on these same stages of oocytes and found that several pathways, such as the spindle assembly checkpoint, separation of sister chromatids and meiosis-specific genes, were downregulated in meiosis I in old oocytes, consistent with other studies1,3,7.

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Fig. 1: Ovarian aging contributes to a decrease in egg quality by altering the MVA pathway in GCs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Cecilia S. Blengini & Karen Schindler

  2. Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Cecilia S. Blengini & Karen Schindler

Authors
  1. Cecilia S. Blengini
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  2. Karen Schindler
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Correspondence to Karen Schindler.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Blengini, C.S., Schindler, K. Follicular communication breakdown in aging ovaries. Nat Aging 3, 636–637 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00435-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00435-9

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